BIOLOGY 512

UNIT SIX: EVOLUTION: THE SCIENTIFIC HISTORY OF LIFE

UNIT OBJECTIVES

UPON COMPLETION OF THIS UNIT, THE STUDENT WILL BE ABLE TO:

¨ DEFINE CORE TERMINOLOGY.

¨ EXPLAIN DARWIN’S OBSERVATIONS AND THEIR RELATIONSHIP TO EVOLUTION.

¨ COMPARE DARWIN’S PRINCIPLES OF FITNESS AND ADAPTATION.

¨ COMPARE AND CONTRAST THE TWO METHODS USED TO DETERMINE THE AGE OF THE EARTH.

¨ EXPLAIN SOME OF THE PROBLEMS WITH THE FOSSIL RECORD.

¨ EXPLAIN WHAT SIMILARITIES OF ORGANISMS TELL US ABOUT EVOLUTION AND RELATIONSHIP AMONG ORGANISMS.

¨ COMPARE AND CONTRAST DARWIN AND LAMARCK’S THEORIES OF EVOLUTION.

¨ EXPLAIN THE SIGNIFICANCE OF STANLEY MILLER’S EXPERIMENTS.

¨ GIVE AN EXAMPLE OF NATURAL SELECTION.

¨ EXPLAIN HOW ARTIFICIAL SELECTION CHANGES EVOLUTION.

¨ DESCRIBE HOW GENETICS PLAYS AN IMPORTANT ROLE IN THE EVOLUTIONARY PROCESS.

¨ EXPLAIN HOW AN EXISTING SPECIES CAN LEAD TO THE EVOLUTION OF A NEW SPECIES.

¨ COMPARE DIVERGENT AND CONVERGENT EVOLUTION.

¨ LIST THE BASIC FACTS ABOUT HUMAN ORIGINS ON WHICH ALL RESEARCHERS AGREE.

¨ EXPLAIN HOW PRIMATES EVOLVED.

¨ LIST AND DESCRIBE VARIOUS HOMINID SPECIES.

¨ TRACE THE EVOLUTION OF HOMINIDS TO MODERN HUMANS.

¨ WRITE A POSITION STATEMENT REGARDING YOUR ACCEPTANCE OR REJECTION REGARDING SOME OF THE THEORIES PROPOSED IN THIS UNIT.

TEXT RESOURCES: CHAPTERS FIFTEEN THROUGH SEVENTEEN